B. R. I.
Cibber's Lives of the Poets (Vol. v., p. 25.).
—I have not Croker's last edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson to refer to, to see what is there said respecting Cibber's title to the authorship of this book; but I find the following MS. note on the fly-leaf of the first volume of my copy of the Lives of the Poets:—
"Steevens says that not the smallest part of the work called 'Cibber's Lives of the Poets' was the compilation of Cibber; being entirely written by Mr. Shiells, amanuensis to Dr. Johnson, when his Dictionary was preparing for the press. T. Cibber was in the King's Bench, and accepted of ten guineas from the booksellers for leave to prefix his name to the work, and it was purposely so prefixed as to leave the reader in doubt whether he or his father was the person designed."
The American edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon, at vol. iii. p. 190. makes the same statement, but without giving any authority. The name of Robert Shiells, a Scotchman, is here given as the author of the Lives of the Poets.
P. T.
Shakspere and the English Press (Vol. iv., p. 344.).
—The Second part of Henry the Sixt, ascribed to Shakspere by Heminge and Condell, is founded on a play entitled The first part of the contention betwixt the two famous houses of Yorke and Lancaster, which was first printed anonymously in 1594. It was reprinted anonymously in 1600; and, as the work of Shakspere, about 1619. The amended play first appeared in the folio of 1623. The passage in which Jack Cade reproaches lord Say with having promoted education, stands thus in the editions of 1594 and 1623:
"Thou hast most traitorously erected a grammer schoole, to infect the youth of the realme, and against the kings crowne and dignitie, thou hast built vp a paper-mill."—1594. (J. O. H.)
"Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar-school: and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used; and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill."—1623. (J. P. C.)